Housing Starts Fewest in Nearly Two Years

Washington, DC, March 16, 2011 -- House starts fell to a seasonally adjusted 479,000 homes last month, down 22.5% from the previous month--the fewest in almost two years, according to the Commerce Department.

Meanwhile, building permits, a leading indicator of housing construction, fell 8.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 517,000, the lowest level of permits on record.

The number of starts was the second lowest level in more than half a century.

The building pace is far below the 1.2 million units a year that economists consider healthy.

The drop in home construction activity was widespread. It fell 48.6% in the Midwest, 37.5% in the Northeast, 28% in the West and 6.3% in the South.